Jon Gomm: An open letter to Britain First

This Remembrance Sunday, I’ve written an open letter to Britain First (a facebook-based far-right political party who organise paramilitary style “Christian patrols” and “invasions” of British mosques):

Dear Britain First,

I once visited a city where, 20 years ago, they demolished all the mosques, some were ripped down by hand. People stood up like you’re doing, and shouted “Put our country first!” So they did. In the most brutal civil war possibly ever seen in Europe, neighbours fought neighbours, the dead were hung like strange fruit from trees, and the city was cleansed. That is war, that is the pain we are commemorating this Remembrance Sunday. Lest we forget.

You don’t speak for white Britain. You only speak for those who can’t tolerate anything but their own way of life. And if they can’t tolerate anything but their own way of life, then there is no country on earth where they could be happy or feel like they belong.

You talk about “freedom” and “equality” but really you just want YOUR culture in YOUR country. Well, your culture is not my culture. I live in a happily multicultural neighbourhood of a multicultural city, and REAL British culture is about tolerance, justice and friendship. It always has been, we have fought to defend those principles.

I hope one day you see the light. Maybe one day you will feel the true courage inside you which only love can inspire, and not the false courage of hatred.

My beliefs are shared by the vast majority of ordinary British people. We are legion. We don’t have a uniform and a badge and a beret, like you guys wear. Because we don’t need a uniform to know where we belong.

Jon Gomm is an English singer-songwriter and performer. Using a single acoustic guitar to create drum sounds, bass lines and melodies simultaneously, his songs draw on a range of influences and styles including blues, soul, rock and even metal. Michael Hedges is an important source of inspiration.[1] To date he has recorded three solo albums and has toured full-time since 2004 (WIKI)